AMO/Featured Board Process

Please note the policies at https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-policies/

Mozilla needs your help selecting recommended extensions

Since the beginning of AMO, we've had a set of recommended extensions that feature prominently at the homepage and elsewhere.

Recommendation by Mozilla guarantees downloads and notoriety. Many extension developers, especially start-ups, see it as crucial in order for their content to succeed.

End users see recommendations as a safe starting point. Mozilla is trusted to recommend great extensions that work perfectly.

Past selection processes were somewhat objective, handled randomly by a small number of people, and the set of recommended extensions was not updated as frequently as we would have hoped.

We therefore reach out to the Mozilla community to join an Advisory Board to review nominated extensions, and to help maintain a set of recommendations that is current. We think this is a fair way to overcome some of the past hurdles, and an opportunity to share responsibility with the community that actually uses and develops extensions on a daily basis.

The Recommended Extensions Advisory Board

Every 6 months, a call will go out via the Add-ons Blog for volunteers to participate in choosing recommended extensions. Volunteers commit to testing nominated extensions.

Board members must be from the add-ons community: power users, developers, and evangelists of add-ons.

Amongst other things, members must abstain from voting on:

• any extension with which they have a business or personal affiliation
• direct competitors of any such extension.

Recommended extension selection process

First, all currently-recommended extensions will be reviewed to ensure their active user count is growing at an acceptable rate in relation to downloads. Extensions that do not show excellent growth will be de-listed.

Selecting new extensions

Next, all applications submitted since the last voting phase will be reviewed individually to analyse the merits of each extension and experiences using it. A vote will be taken for each nomination and the decision will be placed in the meeting notes, along with any reasons for rejection, if applicable.

De-listing

Pruning is regular. Reasons for de-listing include:

• does not have wide appeal to consumers
• user experience is lacking
• quality or security issues
• too similar in functionality to another recommended extension.

Extension requirements

1. The extensions must have a completed and informative listing on AMO. This means:

• 64 pixel custom icon
• clear name without lengthy SEO keywords in it
• screenshots of the add-on's functionality
• a short, clear, and concise summary of the extensions's functionality
• a detailed description describing additional details of the add-on's functionality
• fully approved by AMO editors

2. The extensions must have excellent user reviews, and any problems or support requests should be promptly addressed by the developer.

3. The extensions must have a minimum of 500 users.

4. The extensions must be built with WebExtensions API.

5. Most importantly, the add-on must have wide consumer appeal to Firefox's users and be outstanding in nearly every way: user experience, performance, security, and usefulness or entertainment value.

6. If an extensions is rejected, it is ineligible to apply again for 3 months.

Extension developers are encouraged to include any details and outside reviews they've received with their application, or may include up to 5 minutes of a video demo/tutorial/pitch.

Discovery Pane

The Get Add-ons section (also referred to as the Discovery Pane) serves a distinct editorial function: it is a tightly curated list of extensions and themes selected by Mozilla staff to address an array of the most common user needs (ad blockers, media downloaders, etc.). The Discovery Pane is primarily intended to introduce extensions to Firefox users who have limited experience with browser customization. As such, we only select extensions that meet the highest standards of functionality, user experience, and compatibility.

Only extensions that are amongst Mozilla's recommendations will be considered for the Discovery Pane. Please note that featured content must meet certain criteria.

Discovery Pane content is updated monthly. Some highly popular add-ons may remain for an indefinite period.

If you'd like to nominate a great extension for consideration in the Discovery Pane, please send us a link to the extension on AMO to amo-featured@mozilla.org and we'll add your nomination to the editorial review queue. There's no need to mention you're nominating add-ons specifically for the Discovery Pane, but feel free to note that if you like.

Finally

Members of the Mozilla Add-ons team may veto any extension's selection because of security, privacy, compatibility, or any other reason, but will seek the Board's approval before featuring any add-ons.

This featured policy only applies to the addons.mozilla.org global list of featured extensions. Extensions featured in other locations are often pulled from this list, but Mozilla may feature any extension in other locations without the Board's consent. Additionally, locale-specific features override the global defaults, so if a locale has opted to select their own features, some or all of the global features may not appear in that locale.